A Twist of Fate
by JLBarrett112
Summary: When a twist of fate sends Hermione back in time she decides to make the best of the chance given to her. But can she make things better, or will the future be worse when she returns? No Slash. T for now but may change.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

Hogwarts was in ruins. Families were torn apart. Harry was distraught and lost, Hermione didn't know what to do for him. She had been trying to help him mourn whilst mourning herself. They had lost too many friends in the final battle, amongst all of those who died in the years leading up to it. Hermione had removed Dumbledore's portrait from Hogwarts shortly after the battle was finished, Hogwarts would not be running for a while, if at all. She spoke to him regularly, asking him for advice. She had been trying to find ways for her to help the recovering Wizarding World, along with Harry, but she didn't know where to begin. Hogwarts needed rebuilding, there was a lot of work to do in the Ministry and no-one knew what was going to happen with all the kids come September 1st.

Hermione was going from issue to issue, trying to help. She was pouring her magic into rebuilding Hogwarts every morning, then she was at the Ministry every afternoon helping Kingsley with an unending trail of paperwork. She was also chatting with McGonagall about what to do about the new term quickly coming up on them. She had grown quiet close to the old Transfiguration professor, sharing some stories when they couldn't focus on work anymore. McGonagall appreciated everything Hermione was doing but she could see that she wanted to do more.

"Hermione dear, you cannot push yourself any further. You must take some time to take care of yourself or you will burn out. I have seen it before, students putting too much pressure on themselves during exam time." Minerva said to Hermione, finally unable to stop herself from saying her peace. They had been going over plans for several hours after a full day of working on Hogwarts and at the Ministry. She had dark circles under her eyes and Minerva could tell she hadn't eaten a proper meal all day. "You should go home and get at least 8 hours sleep and a proper meal. Have Molly cook you something then lock yourself away in your bedroom and don't come out until 11 tomorrow morning at least." Minerva ended up half shouting at Hermione, pointing to the Floo in her office.

"We haven't finished looking over the new plans yet. There is still a lot of work to do before I can stop." Hermione tried to argue back. But Minerva wasn't taking it.

"No arguing. Go." She said, pursing her lips. Hermione knew the look she was getting, there was no arguing against her.

Hermione got up, gathered her things and walked to the Floo. Turning back she said, "I won't be able to rest properly until it is all done. It's not possible." Minerva didn't say anything, she just pointed again at the Floo. Hermione turned and Floo'd back to the Burrow.

As per part of Minerva's request Hermione did eat something. But she was working at the same time. She had papers spread out on the table in the kitchen while she was snacking on some breadsticks. Eventually the food was gone and everyone was in bed. Hermione's eyes were drooping, she was struggling to stay awake but she was determined to get some more work into her day. Finally, at some ungodly hour, her head dropped and she was asleep.

What felt like several hours later she woke up, lying on the floor somewhere. That confused her. She could have sworn she was at the table when she fell asleep, someone must have carried her to her bed or something. Maybe she fell out of bed at some point. She sat up and rubbed her eyes, feeling terrible.

"What on earth?! Who are you?" A voice said. A voice she hadn't heard in over a year. Shocked she opened her eyes and looked to where the voice was coming from. Professor Dumbledore was standing in front of her. In his pyjamas of all things.

 _What on earth is happening?_

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 **A/N: Thank you for reading my new story. Any and all feedback is most welcome. I plan to be updating this story weekly to begin with but may get more often the more I write.**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, just the new story-line I am thinking about here.**

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 _ **Previously**_

 **"What on earth?! Who are you?" A voice said. A voice she hadn't heard in over a year. Shocked she opened her eyes and looked to where the voice was coming from. Professor Dumbledore was standing in front of her. In his pyjamas of all things.**

 _ **What on earth is happening?**_

 _Now_

She was looking up at the face of Albus Dumbledore. A very shocked face. A very shocked and fairly younger face than she had last seen.

"Professor Dumbledore? What? How?" Hermione stumbled over her questions. She suddenly noticed that she was sitting on the floor of his office, just behind his desk. It was then that she noticed that Dumbledore had his wand trained on her. It was a fairly odd sight as he was wearing bright blue and purple pyjamas, with little stars that dashed about every so often.

"How did you get in here? You aren't a student I recognise so the wards shouldn't have let you in." Professor Dumbledore was quite stern when he wanted to be.

"My name is Hermione Granger. I'm not sure how I got here. I don't know what happened. One moment I was working in the Burrow, the next I wake up here. I must have fallen asleep at some point. Am I still dreaming?" Hermione didn't really want to bring up the point of Dumbledore's death, just in case this really wasn't a dream. It wasn't polite to talk about it with him anyway, not without him bringing it up first.

Dumbledore waved his wand over Hermione a few times, silently so she wasn't sure what he was doing. _Probably scanning me for some sort of trap._

"I'm not a danger to you or anyone here at Hogwarts. I'm a friend of the Order of the Phoenix." That was sure to get his attention. Dumbledore stopped scanning her for a moment.

"Only those within the Order are meant to know of its existence. I know all of the members, but I don't know you." He said thoughtfully, "You say your name is Hermione Granger but I don't recognise the surname. You are most likely not Pureblood."

"I'm a Muggleborn Sir." Hermione interrupted. She went to stand up, being quite cautious of Dumbledore's wand. When it seemed like she wasn't going to get hexed for moving she stood up, stretching her sore muscles.

"Muggleborn. Ok. You mentioned the Burrow. I assume you know the significance of that name." He was questioning her.

"Yes, it's the home of the Weasley family. What did your scans find?" She got straight to the point. Dumbledore didn't really like being interrupted.

"How old are you?" He asked in return.

"18. What did your scans find?" She asked again.

"So you are in your last year of studies." He stated, again refusing to answer her question.

"Technically yes. What did your scans find? Please answer my question." Hermione gave Dumbledore her sternest glare, trying to imitate Professor McGonagall. Admittedly it probably wouldn't work against Dumbledore, but she gave it a go. All her glare did was make Dumbledore smile a little.

"My scans found an anomaly, one I haven't seen before. But I believe you pose no threat to me or my students. What do you mean technically you are in your last year of studies?"

 _Well that was some kind of answer I suppose._

"What kind of anomaly? Whilst I was technically a 7th year I wasn't able to attend Hogwarts." She wasn't exactly going to blurt out that she was on the run. She still didn't know what was happening. She still could be dreaming.

"I am still unsure of how to describe the anomaly accurately. It would help if you would answer some questions of mine." It was odd for Hermione to feel like she was being reprimanded. Not only was it odd because Dumbledore was dead, but also because she prided herself on not getting in trouble. Now she felt like Dumbledore was telling her off.

"I'll answer some questions. I won't answer all of them though." She still had to be careful after all.

"You say you are a Muggleborn named Hermione Granger and that you have studied up until your 7th Year. However I do not recognise either your face or your name. You are not a student here, and you do not have an accent, therefore unlikely to be a student from another school. My question therefore is, when were you born?"

"Why would you ask that?" She replied, confused. Then again, what about this situation wasn't confusing?

"I would like to know, it is a rather pertinent question at the moment." If his expression wasn't guarded before it was now. Hermione wasn't sure what to make of it. He moved away from her, obviously he had decided she wasn't so much of a threat. He moved towards some of his odd silver instruments, waving his wand. Occasionally flicking it towards Hermione then nodding at the results popping out of the instruments. Hermione had no idea what most of them were doing. The few that she had a vague idea about confused her with their results. After ten minutes of this he turned back to her.

"Have a seat Miss Granger." He pointed to the seat on the other side of his desk. She moved to sit as he sat in his chair, still looking like he was contemplating what she was. She gave him a similar look, given that he was dead as far as she was aware. After a moment he started on an odd speech. "Miss Granger I apologise for being so defensive earlier, I would not have even guessed who you were before our brief conversation. You must forgive me, this is the first time I have met a Time Traveller."

Now that was a surprise.

 _What on earth is he talking about? She wasn't a Time Traveller, was she?_

"Why do you think that I am a Time Traveller Professor?"

"Why because it is 1971 my dear and from what my scans tell me you don't exist in this time. That makes me think you were born until 1972 at the earliest." What was it with Dumbledore and dropping bomb shells on her?

"I have to admit, I am not quite sure what to make of that. I'm still not convinced that I'm not dreaming. But if you are correct I can't tell you when I was born, you could infer too much from that information." Dumbledore smiled at that, Hermione couldn't quite figure out what he was thinking. She could normally hazard a decent guess at people's thoughts, but Dumbledore was always a mystery to her.

"So you didn't come here on purpose then. That will make things all the more difficult. If you are not sure how you came here, how are we to return you to your time? If I may ask, what year did you come from?" Dumbledore looked into her eyes with that question, after Hermione felt a small amount of pressure in her mind she remembered that Dumbledore was a skilled Legilimens.

Breaking eye contact she replied, "I'm not sure if I should say Sir. If I have really travelled back in time then I must limit the impact my presence will make. As far as I am aware there is no way to travel this far back, or to travel that far forward again. How would you suggest we go about finding me a way home? Also may I request that you not try to read my mind again? The knowledge I have is too dangerous for this time period. Too many things could change too easily."

Dumbledore seemed surprised that she had known of his attempts to enter her mind, but he did not look sorry for his actions at all. "I will begin making some enquiries to the Department of Mysteries. I shall keep my questions vague so they do not find out about you. I'm not quite sure what they would do about you so I will keep you from any potential harm whilst you are here." Hermione noticed he didn't respond to her request. "For the moment you may stay in one of the guest rooms."

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 **A/N: Thank you all for tuning in to my second chapter. I know this is a little later than I said it would be, but myself and my partner had to welcome a new nephew into the family over the weekend! So a trip to the hometown was in order. There are no more imminent births coming up so I should be back on schedule!**

 **Any and all reviews are most welcome!**


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